Below is a list of speakers of the Australian House of Representatives .
The parties shown are those to which the speakers belonged at the time they held office.
No. | Name | Portrait | Party | State | Term of office | Comments | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sir Frederick Holder | Independent | South Australia | 9 May 1901 | 23 July 1909 | Resigned from Free Trade Party upon election as speaker. Died in office. | ||
2 | Dr Carty Salmon | Liberal | Victoria | 28 July 1909 | 19 February 1910 | |||
3 | Charles McDonald | Labor | Queensland | 1 July 1910 | 23 April 1913 | First time in role. | ||
4 | Sir Elliot Johnson | Liberal | New South Wales | 9 July 1913 | 30 July 1914 | First time in role. | ||
(3) | Charles McDonald | Labor | Queensland | 8 October 1914 | 26 March 1917 | Second time in role. First Speaker to serve multiple terms. | ||
(4) | Sir Elliot Johnson | Nationalist | New South Wales | 14 June 1917 | 6 November 1922 | Second time in role. Most recent Speaker to serve multiple terms. | ||
5 | William Watt | Nationalist | Victoria | 28 February 1923 | 3 October 1925 | First former government minister to become Speaker. | ||
6 | Sir Littleton Groom | Nationalist | Queensland | 13 January 1927 | 16 September 1929 | Defeated in his own seat. | ||
7 | Norman Makin | Labor | South Australia | 20 November 1929 | 27 November 1931 | |||
8 | George Mackay | United Australia | Queensland | 17 February 1932 | 7 August 1934 | |||
9 | Sir George John Bell | United Australia | Tasmania | 23 October 1934 | 27 August 1940 | |||
10 | Walter Nairn | United Australia | Western Australia | 20 November 1940 | 21 June 1943 | Remained as speaker following the mid-term fall of the Fadden minority government in 1941, until defeated in his own seat at the 1943 election. | ||
11 | Sol Rosevear | Labor | New South Wales | 22 June 1943 | 31 October 1949 | |||
12 | Archie Cameron | Liberal | South Australia | 22 February 1950 | 9 August 1956 | Died in office. | ||
13 | Sir John "Jack" McLeay | Liberal | South Australia | 29 August 1956 | 31 October 1966 | |||
14 | Sir William Aston | Liberal | New South Wales | 21 February 1967 | 2 November 1972 | Defeated in his own seat. | ||
15 | Jim Cope | Labor | New South Wales | 27 February 1973 | 27 February 1975 | Resigned after the Whitlam government refused to support his naming of the Minister for Labour and Immigration, Clyde Cameron. | ||
16 | Gordon Scholes | Labor | Victoria | 27 February 1975 | 11 November 1975 | |||
17 | Sir Billy Snedden | Liberal | Victoria | 17 February 1976 | 4 February 1983 | |||
18 | Dr Harry Jenkins Sr. | Labor | Victoria | 21 April 1983 | 20 December 1985 | First Speaker whose son was a later Speaker. | ||
19 | Joan Child | Labor | Victoria | 11 February 1986 | 28 August 1989 | First female Speaker. | ||
20 | Leo McLeay | Labor | New South Wales | 29 August 1989 | 8 February 1993 | |||
21 | Stephen Martin | Labor | New South Wales | 4 May 1993 | 29 January 1996 | |||
22 | Bob Halverson | Liberal | Victoria | 30 April 1996 | 3 March 1998 | |||
23 | Ian Sinclair | National | New South Wales | 4 March 1998 | 31 August 1998 | |||
24 | Neil Andrew | Liberal | South Australia | 10 November 1998 | 31 August 2004 | |||
25 | David Hawker | Liberal | Victoria | 16 November 2004 | 17 October 2007 | |||
26 | Harry Jenkins Jr. | Labor | Victoria | 12 February 2008 | 24 November 2011 [1] | First Speaker whose father was a Speaker. | ||
27 | Peter Slipper | Independent | Queensland | 24 November 2011 [2] | 9 October 2012 [2] | Resigned from the Liberal National Party the day after his election as Speaker. Resigned the speakership in the midst of court proceedings. First independent Speaker since Frederick Holder. | ||
28 | Anna Burke | Labor | Victoria | 9 October 2012 [3] | 5 August 2013 | |||
29 | Bronwyn Bishop | Liberal | New South Wales | 12 November 2013 | 2 August 2015 | First non-Labor female Speaker (third overall). Stood down after public outcry about profligate use of taxpayer funded travel benefits. [4] [5] [6] | ||
30 | Tony Smith | Liberal | Victoria | 10 August 2015 | 23 November 2021 | |||
31 | Andrew Wallace | Liberal | Queensland | 23 November 2021 | 26 July 2022 | |||
32 | Milton Dick | Labor | Queensland | 26 July 2022 | Incumbent |
The speaker of the House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the Australian House of Representatives, the lower chamber within the Parliament of Australia. The counterpart in the upper house is the president of the Senate. The office of the speakership was established in 1901 by section 35 of the Constitution of Australia. The primary responsibilities of the office is to oversee house debates, determine which members may speak, maintain order and the parliamentary and ministerial codes of conduct during sessions and uphold all rules and standing orders. The current speaker of the House of Representatives is Milton Dick, who was elected on 26 July 2022.
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